I know that there’s some negative politics about the place and its recent
history and friends of ours who have been treated badly by the place. We really
didn’t know that much about it until the show was booked. We certainly
don’t want to upset old friends just by playing there. Hate all the
politics.
At the end of the day, I just want to rock.
We’ll also be unveiling the latest aspect of the live engine, and if it
all works out the way Gabriel and I want it to, you’ll have to strap
yourself in tight because it’s going to be a full-blown nuke.
We’re on Search and Destroy mode now.

We’re going to be gigging in Boston in January as well, the details are
as follows:

I know, it’s not an all-ages show, but there was nothing that we could do
about it. It’s just one of those hang-ups. If you’re under age and
really want to come to the show, get in touch and we’ll see if we can
forge something good for you to use in the slot.
It’ll be an interesting night and we’ll be playing some of the
songs that have only gotten exposure on the West Coast or Midwest
so far.

Come celebrate National Homegrown Terrorist day with your favorite homegrown
terrorists at the closing night of DC institution Nation Nightclub. There will
be a slew of jaggedly cool DJ as well as bands galore, Informatik included, so
swing your corpse down and snap a bone with us. http://www.primacycompanies.com/nation/index.cfm

This is a tremendously cool festival that's plugged in for another smash year.
It features a stylistically broad-spectrum line-up of artists from PTI to Jenn
Vix and And One. On the Saturday night we'll be performing with noise commandos
COMBICHRIST. It'll be a total nosebleed. Grab your oxygene mask and get in the
pit.

After a seven-year hiatus from the stage, I’m going to be unveiling
Chemlab live on the 10th of August in Boston
with the help of a couple of opti-nightlings. This is going to be a very
interesting, limited edition evening of bizarre proportions and I’m looking
forward to it with curiosity and hunger. There are certain things, however,
that should be said about this show before I go any further.

This is not quite the Chemlab that you knew from before, but then neither is
Oxidizer. Let me cast light. I did one of my solo shows in Boston last year when I was in town and
hooked up with Gabriel from mindFIELD (www.mindfield.org), he actually furled
noise behind the first story I told that night and seemed plugged into the same
frame as I. We’ve been in touch ever since and have tossed around the
picture of spinning a one-off, experiment with his band backing me up
doing all Chemlab songs. Called either mindlab or chemfield and presented as a
cover band, we’ve tried to nail down a show for ages,
but each attempt has been thwarted, each step seen the foot hacked off again.
Very frustrating.

Now this gear-shifts, a lot. I’m going to be over in the States from
next week, the 19th, and then up in Boston
in early August and, finally, we’re going to put this strange creature on
stage though it’s much fleshed out from the shape of the genesis seed. If
6 were 9. This is not your fathers Chemlab however, rather a mutant strain.
Though familiar, it has some critically different wiring. Dylan isn’t
involved as he’s impossible to find as has no hunger to make music. Servo
can’t gig yet because this is a one-time affair and he’s out in
LA-LA. In future he’ll be looped in. Levi isn’t playing bass on
this yet either. Standing in his stead is a cool shard of glass known as Jimmy.
Keys are hammered by Regan and the guitar slung by Gabriel the core engine of
mindFIELD. Although the faces are different and we’re not yet fully
quadro-sonic, the essence remains the same. Orbiting around Dylan and me, the
live band was eternally in flux. Same as it ever was except that now Gabriel
becomes Dylan. Looks a touch like him as well.

Bear in mind, this is a one-time event. It won’t ever be repeated. The
line-up and content will unequivocally alter shape by the next time you see it.
Each iteration takes me closer to the beast that I want the band to be now and
none of the previous shapes will be seen again. The Lizard sheds its skin.
Since this was originally a show designed as a one-off, we’re keeping
that mental wiring but taking Chemlab as the name. The set will be deliciously
familiar yet will push into new terrain as well. We’ll be playing some
songs that won’t be heard in the set again once we get going. There are
also a few older tracks that’ve never been played before and that’s
a twisted challenge that may never be repeated.

What I present to you is the first flashes of the new touring band, a
Vaseline valentine gunning its engine in the lot and getting ready to unleash
in your head.

Jared here. This is just a quick posting to explain why the CHEMLAB
record’s taking so damned long to hit the streets. Jason and Jamie and FJ
and I (along with a few other key noisists) had a fantastic, spring-wound,
deepcut-groove time writing and tearing apart the trax that make up OXIDIZER.
It’s a great record, very much in the vein of BURN OUT, while not
imitating it. It updates and mutates and at its heart is a detonator coil set
to go.

I’m really proud of it and everything that’s brought it this
far. I want to make sure that all of Jason, Jamie and FJ’s hard work gets
shown off in the best possible way, with the most power. However, everyone on
the project felt that it got rushed at the end and needed more than we could
give it at the time. It was a tough call but we’ve decided to bring in a
second producer, Julian Beeston, to work with us on finishing off the record.
This means that the record won’t be coming out until January but when it
hits the streets, it’s guaranteed to be a multi-layered sonic beast even
more improved by a second drag through the mixing desk.
To compensate somewhat for this disappointing delay, I’ll have copies of
a limited edition EP with me on the Pigface tour. It’ll have a few trax
on it that you might be interested in - a couple of trax from OXIDIZER, as well
as two from some EAST SIDE MILITIA demos which I came across recently. The
demos feature Geno and the late great William Tucker - very different versions
than on the album, and they sound amazing!

Also, the official CHEMLAB web site will be up and running by the time I
start the Pigface tour on November 5th. Be warned, it’s going to be in a
state of mutation and freak-out for quite a while, shifting a lot as new
discolorations are revealed. Check it out at www.hydrogenbar.com
OXIDIZER couldn't have happened without Jason, Jamie and FJ, and come January,
I hope you’ll all agree that it was well worth waiting for. In the
meantime, thanks for your patience.

Anyone interested in street teaming the new record should send a note to the
site here and we’ll be in touch. We need as much help as we can muster to
help spread this record out to the edges.
Now hold still: here it comes...
jared

Update from Jared 10/1/03:

I'm going to be out on the road with Pigface until December 1st.. That'll
cover the Midwest/Lakes, East Coast, thru Florida and
into Texas.
Then I split back to London
for some pretty cool and high-profile shows. Check the tour-specific site: www.theunitedtour.com and
you can also check out: www.pigface.net.
It's gonna be a cool line-up and any spreading of the word you can do I'd
really appreciate. I'm really
looking forward to being out there again and seeing all the kids. Been
missing everyone fierce and need a good dose of the 'face
napalm-vietnam-scream along...and what with a new chemlab record coming out,
there might be a few surprises in the bomb bay. I'll even be selling shirts
and maybe a few discs. I've also come across a few of the XXX Burn Out
artworks, but I'm not sure if there's any interest in them any more.

Words

Jared recently had a short story published in a collection called Westside
Storeys. The story is called “The Angus Sword” and is a strange
look at a character he knew. You can check it out, although Jared's name is not
mentioned, at xpress.co.uk

Jared also had a story accepted for a “rock’n’roll
noir” magazine called Bullet that will be up and running in
September. The story is “East River Park”, one of the ones
that he performs around town all of the time. bulletmagazine.co.uk

There’s a collection of ChelseaHotel stories that may be
out in October. Another story of Jared's is in there. More detail on that soon.

Things are moving along slowly but surely on the new Chemlab record. Servo
is working with Jason and Jamie from Acumen on it
with contributions from FJ (The Aggression), Anders (The Pain Machinery),
Krztoff (BILE) and a few others. Looks like Ned (played on ‘Burn
Out’ and with 16 Volt) will be contributing as well. the record’s
gonna be a killer and although there are a few more people than on the
previous records this will not be a Pigface style approach. We always wanted to
incorporate the talents of different musicians and did that to a certain
degree. Tucker’s a great example. This simply carries on that basic
functioning concept and includes the talents of musicians who helped create the
whole Machine rock sound. It’s gonna be cool and aggressive. It’ll
be coming out as a joint release between Crack Nation and Invisible.

Work with Mark Spybey on a soundtracked stories record will start in April.
More on that one once it gets rolling. Jared is also working on the 8-Bit
Barbarella record with Ross-san from Goteki.